The Genre Starter Guides series explores musical styles through a handful of essential albums. Each guide introduces listeners to a genre’s core sound and history while suggesting albums that make the best entry points.
If you’re curious about exploring new sounds, these music genre guides introduce the essential albums that define each style.
And if you’d rather explore other genres through a favorite artist, check out our If You Like This Artist series.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Shoegaze
How to Listen When the Music Blurs Shoegaze can feel disorienting the first time you hear it. The guitars are loud but indistinct. The vocals feel buried, almost… Continue Reading
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Beginner’s Guide to Trip-Hop: Five Albums That Open the Door
Trip-hop is one of those genres that you almost feel before you understand. It’s late-night music. Music for walking home with your hood up. Music for thinking, or… Continue Reading
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Beginner’s Guide to Film Scores
Emotion in musical form, written to move you even when no one is speaking. Film scores are often the gateway to instrumental music. You already know how these… Continue Reading
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Beginner’s Guide to Psychedelic Folk
Hazy, warm, and surreal. Folk music that wandered into a dream. Psychedelic folk is what happens when artists take acoustic guitars into the woods and return with something… Continue Reading
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Beginner’s Guide to New Wave
Sharp guitars, brighter synths, the stylish pulse of the 80s. New wave is impossible to mistake. It’s the moment punk’s nervous energy got dressed up, grabbed a synth,… Continue Reading
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Beginner’s Guide to Experimental Hip-Hop
Chaos, creativity, distortion, feeling. Hip-hop that refuses to stay in the lines. Experimental hip-hop isn’t a genre so much as an attitude. These records sound like someone breaking… Continue Reading